Your work computer and the Constitution

I saw this piece at Wired, and it got me thinking that you better be careful what you do with your work computer, since it might not be protected under the 4th ammendment and it seems there is nothing your company or you can do about it right now.

Yet, a rash of recent court decisions says the Constitution may not be enough to protect my laptop from arbitrary, suspicionless and warrantless examination by the police.

At issue is the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures by government agents. As a primary safeguard against arbitrary and capricious searches, property seizures and arrests, the founding fathers required the government to first seek a warrant from a judge or magistrate.

The warrant has to specifically describe the place to be searched and the items to be seized.

Searches and seizures without such a warrant are presumed to be unconstitutional. There are times, of course, when it would be unreasonable, burdensome, ineffective or just plain silly to require police to get a warrant before searching, so courts have carved out many, many exceptions to the warrant requirement. The fundamental thread in these decisions is a subtle and case-specific determination of what is "reasonable" conduct by law enforcement...

Given the sensitivity of information stored on a computer, the way people tend to archive everything, how long a comprehensive search takes and the likelihood of discovering contraband with such a search, courts may well find that computer searches are allowed at the border only based on reasonable suspicion, not as a baseless fishing expedition.

I hope for the best, as I do in United States v. Ziegler, the case that found private employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their workplace computers. Defense attorneys have asked for a rehearing, and the court may do better next time.

Ziegler is important, because if employees have no protected privacy rights, then the government can enter a private workplace, without cause, without a warrant, with or without the employer's consent and search employee computers. The business might try to sue, but the employee would not have the right either to challenge the government's actions in court, or to suppress any discovered evidence.

For whatever it is worth, this just doesn't seem right, the company should at least be able to protect its assets from warrantless government seizure. Just tyring to keep the masses aware of big brother's capabilities.